Nyx opened the door to the greenhouse and entered. Some moon light seeped in behind her as she walked into the house of plants. She was intrigued by the plants more since the Herbology assignment and was itching to watch over some plants again. She knew she could get into serious trouble for sneaking out after dark but she was already level one and she begged for something to do, so what was the worst they could do to her? It's not like they could kill her. She'd tried.

Nyx walked over to some of the plants, forgetting that the door was open, and admired one of the flowering plants. She noticed one looked like it needed water and so she grabbed a watering can and began watering it. She finished watering the plant and than sat on the floor, closed her eyes, and took in the delightful aromas of all the plants around her. She felt more at peace than she ever had.

Nyx felt the closest to sleeping she had in a long time. She was still thirsty but her mood was much better. She remained silent, enjoying the quiet peaceful night. That is until she heard footsteps. Her eyes instantly opened and she turned to face the door, standing up as she did. Only than did she realize that she had left the door open in the first place. She was so worried she'd be in big trouble now. But all she did was stand there, among the plants, and wait to see who would appear at this hour and catch her.

One of those Nights… Micah had been awake since 4 o’clock that morning. He was tired, he was grumpy, he was hungry, and he was on his last nerve with whoever had been vandalizing his fluxwort plants. The special breed he’d finally been successful with. He was trying to think of a hex he could use to surround his small garden, but had been so far unsuccessful. He’d get them, he was patient. As long as they didn’t outright kill the plants, they wouldn’t walk away with serious damage.

That was his tiredness talking. He knew deep down he wasn’t that nasty. Not unless he needed to be, he assumed. He was sure the inmates knew that as well and that’s why they were messing with him. He clicked his tongue impatiently as he walked along the perimeter of the greenhouse. Not paying attention, he stepped on a small patch of grass that immediately transfigured into a muddy pit. Before he could register, his left leg had sunk all the way to his knee. He pulled his leg out with a few choice swear words. Not like he wasn’t dirty enough after the entire days’ work. Now his leg was caked in mud and smelled less than pleasant.

Just a few more checks and he could go to sleep. That’s where his mind was. He continued on down the toward the greenhouse door and didn’t even register that he hadn’t needed to open it. Instead, he walked in, absently whistling some random tune under his breath as he went, pulling his wand out and muttering augamenti under his breath. Water shot from his wand like a pressure washer and took off most of the mud within a few moments. He started singing a few lines from his song as the water stopped and Micah replaced his wand in his pockets.

The groundskeeper looked up for the first time- taking in his surroundings. “Oh…nothin’ is someth----AHH!” Micah started- his terrible rendition of the song he was signing turned more into an exclamation as he looked at the inmate standing among the greenery. “What are you doing?” he asked, in an attempt to regain his frazzled composure.

Nyx had a look of fear on her face. She had just come out here to escape the noises and temptations. She had never meant any harm but she was going to get in trouble now. She had only been trying to protect everyone and calm herself down.

Nyx finally got her voice back. "I'm sorry. I know I'm not supposed to be out this late or in here. I needed to escape the noise and the lights in the room and... and the smell of humans. I couldn't take it anymore. I was so thirsty and felt so sick. I just needed to escape for a bit while it was dark. I didn't want to hurt the plants either. Just make sure they were okay. They... they make me feel better. And their smells don't drive me insane but rather calm me down. I'm sorry. Just punish me."

Nyx gave herself up and was ready to be punished. She had been honest but knew she had no right no believe she'd be believed. She was a criminal. Why would anyone, especially an adult, want to believe her. She hung her head and continued to take in the aroma of the flowers, a good cover for the human smell encrouching on her place of escape. She had to remain calm and take whatever punishment she received for her actions.

Micah recognized the young woman, but couldn’t put a name or a house to her at first. He saw so many children rushing around on any given day, it was a surprise he even recognized faces. She seemed more startled than he did, and immediately set off on a long explanation of what she was doing. ”the smell of humans.” Ah…yes. Well, it wasn’t a full moon obviously, so that narrowed it down to Vampire. Instinctively, Micah felt himself casually reaching for his wand as she continued talking.

They... they make me feel better. And their smells don't drive me insane but rather calm me down..”

Micah felt similarly about the greenhouse and nodded in understanding, but he didn’t drop his guard. Sicila’s words floated through his ears. If she tried anything, he was allowed to use lethal force. His wand hung limply at his side. To diffuse the overly tense situation, the groundskeeper took a deep breath and slowly released it audibly, raising his free right hand to ruffle the hair on the back of his head.

“Listen, I’m not going to punish you for being in here,” He said flatly. How many times had he snuck out of Hogwarts and into the greenhouses as a boy? Albeit, he did it because he was overly excited to learn about the next fascinating bulb. She was doing it because she was thirsty. He took a tentative step sideways and one towards her- still keeping a bit of distance between them, noticing where exactly she was standing.

“You didn’t do anything to that plant right there, did you?” He said quizzically, his eyebrows raised, squinting at the plant.

Nyx got very confused. She calmed down a bit but confusion had replaced the fear she had previously felt. Why did he not punish her when she had snuck out late at night and seemingly hidden among the plants. She didn't understand.

When the man asked if she had messed with a plant, she looked where he had pointed. She had passed the plant but hadn't bothered that specific plant. She shook her head no and than walked over to the plant farther down that she had watered. "This plant's dirt was dry and hard, so I watered it. It looked thirsty and wilted too. I didn't hurt it did I? We were taught in herbology class how to check the coil of plants and how to care for them. I was only trying to take care of it. I;m sorry."

Nyx paused, looked at the man, looked at the plant, looked at the man once more, and than got up the nerve to ask a question. "What type of plant is it anyway? And that one?" she asked, pointing to the plant she had first been asked about. She wanted to know what plants were around her. She itched to know and this man seemed to care about these plants as much as she did.

Nyx's face got a look of curiosity on it as she began wondering what some of these plants were. Her eyes glowed with curiosity, like a little kid's would in a toy store or a candy store. Than another question crossed her mind. "Who are you? Most of the faculty would have punished me on the spot. You seem to truly care about the plants though."

Nyx fell silent to give the man a moment to respond. She continued to look at and admire the plants as she waited, quite happy to be doing just that. She could do that all night. It was the minute the sun rose that she'd have a problem.

Micah’s eyes followed the young woman as she walked a few feet away from him to another plant. She sure did apologize a lot. Especially because of what she was. If anything, it made him more wary of her. He kept his wand limp, but walked a few more steps toward her- his left shoe was wet from his aguamenti charm he’d used a few minutes ago, and squelched when he put weight on his foot. It was an odd sound to reverberate through the greenhouse.

“You’re lucky, you know,” He said- stopping now that he was next to the plant he’d motioned towards at first. He ran his free hand up along the black, twisted trunk of the plant- up towards the one branch and the single black pod that hung from it. “This is a Copernican Tulip Tree.” He said- as if she would know what exactly that was.

Micah took the black pod in his hand and squeezed the point where the pod attached itself to the branch, and it opened- very much like a normal muggle tulip would. However, instead of a colorful flower, the tulip appeared to be engulfed in red-orange flame. He only held it for a moment, before releasing the pressure. The tulip disappeared with a small hiss and Micah let the pod hang once more.

“It’s dormant right now,” He informed her. He wanted to use the analogy of the muggle movie 'Gremlins: Water them after midnight and they go bad'. If he’d put pressure on the pod when it wasn’t dormant, or if the girl had watered the plant and brought it back so suddenly, the entire greenhouse- and anyone in it- would be nothing but a bit of ash. A volatile plant and a volatile end, but it provided excellent uses when handled properly.

“That one.” He said, nodding towards the plant she had watered, “doesn’t have a name yet, I’ve actually just created it.” It was flowering like an asphodel, but also had small, curly leaves that almost made it look like a tiny willow tree.

“Well…” Micah said, with the smallest chuckle, “I guess I could give you detention for a month for being out of bounds so late at night.” He had yet to give any inmate detention- even though he was sure he’d be well within his rights. “Uh….I’m….” he wanted to sound a little less on edge than he actually was, wanted to sound like he was the mighty marshal and she should be scared. He wasn’t really that kind of man though, he’d noticed. Not a push over, but….

“...The groundskeeper- I arrived about a week ago. Call me Micah.” How was that? He felt like he sounded like an idiot, but it wouldn’t be the first time apparently. “And who are you?”

Nyx watched as the man showed her one plant and explained the name of it and that it was dormant. She followed his conversation to the lovely plant she had watered. She was happy she hadn't done anything wrong by watering it. She sighed in relief but otherwise had been silent so far.

Nyx continued looking at the plants as she listened to the man talk. Than it was her turn to speak. "I'm... I'm Nyx. inmate. Uhhh... inmate... I dont know my number." Nyx looked up at him, fear in her eyes. She knew most people wanted to know her number not her name but she could never seem to remember her number. She didn't want to get in trouble for it. She took a deep breath. "I'm Nyx." and held out her hand before retracting it, realizing human contact might not be so smart.

She wanted to know more about the plants around her and about so many things. She was also still curious about Micah the groundskeeper. He seemed nice. She liked him. She liked his new plant. She liked all of the plants. She was overwhelmed by the plants and at the same time intrigued by Micah and still worried about getting in trouble. So she just stared around at the plants and smiled at Micah (her fangs weren't out right now) and than back at the plants. What else could she do.

He was glad she’d retracted her own hand- he was only half ashamed to admit to himself he was too much of a coward to actually make contact with her. What would stop her from trying to bite him? She specifically said she’d come to the greenhouse to get away from the smell of humans. In that case….he wasn’t much of a help.

“Good to meet you Nyx, I personally think those inmate numbers are barbaric, so you’re fine by not knowing it for me.” The whole thing slightly reminded him of his grandfather- the man had survived the holocaust, but forever had tattooed numbers on his arm.

Being criminals was one thing, but to brand them on the back of the neck? “You should probably learn it though…I hear the other Marshals here aren’t so forgiving…” He mentioned, clicking his tongue.

“Have you come in here before?” He prompted, having watched her silently for a few moments as she looked around. She had a respect for her surroundings- wasn’t destructive like so many other children. He wondered if maybe he’d interrupted something she did all the time.

Nyx hung her head in shame. She kenw the rules of the facility and they clearly said that you were to stay in your barracks after a certain hour unless told otherwise. She had been sneaking out once in a while lately and come here to calm down and relax. She never expected to get caught. What had she been thinking.

"I've only come here once or twice before. I started coming here when I couldn't take everyone and everything anymore. But only after we had to take the plants home for herbology. I won't come back ever again if you want me to. I'm sorry." Nyx had nothing else to say. She looked at him and watched his facial expressions but did not move or say anything otherwise.